Torn Crystal Vast
by Katarinea
Summary: Dunevon fic. Last moments. T for death. What if the true royalty of the Rittevon line was the only one who never got to rule? Why was Taybur so attached to Dunevon? And what if Kyprioth gave the true king his dying dignities?


There's a lack of TC/TQ fanfiction, and especially anything with Dunevon. It flew into my head.

**Torn Crystal Vast**

The stormy skies crackled with lightning overhead - the lightning itself stunk of horrible magic, powerful and cruel. Sparks of the angry energy struck all about the boat, curling away from the frothy, tossed seas.

At the helm of the boat, laying against the railing a short distance from the captain's wheel a tiny, boyish face looked up to the malevolent skies. Tears coursed down his cheeks, both angry and sad. His pudgy, well-kept little hands clutched a barely-warm body to his as he muttered. "Es'ren...I...sawry..." He sobbed into the rich coat of the small body he held.

_"YOUR MAJESTY!"_ A strident voice, barely heard over the howling winds, called out. _"DUNEVON!"_

"I...I..." The small regent looked up from his tears and saw through swollen eyes a man coming for him.

"Dunevon! Thank Mithros you're safe!" The man fell to his knees and pulled Dunevon close, pushing away the other body.

"NO! NO! NO!" The boy howled, hands groping wildly. _"YOU CAN...CAN'D LOSE ES'REN!"_

"Your majesty, I understand your concern, but - you must come down into the quarters where it is safer!" The miniature body slid across the deck, slick with the rain. Slowly - slowly, Elsren Balitang's remains fell over the side of the ship, to be tossed forever in the rough ocean.

The child-king's howls stopped. For a moment, all that was heard was the wild, hoarse sobbing of the clouds.

"You...lost Elsren..." Dunevon's voice piped out into the winds.

_"Elsren does not matter!"_ Taybur nearly howled himself. "YOU-"

_Swiiiithack._

Taybur lifted a shocked hand to one cheek, where a diminutive red handprint was, and was silent for a moment, the wash of the angry waves filling his silence.

"Elsren did matter." Dunevon drew himself up to his full three feet of height and looked down his nose at Taygur as best he could. "E'erybody matters." Taybur could only stare at the boy-king who stood before him, his eyes full of a regal, majestic power that his aunt, his brother, and certainly not his father, could not have given him.

The youthful majesty turned to look out over the rail, the stinking yellow lightning flashing in his eyes. "It doesn't matter if I go below deck, does it? Half of the crew is dead. Stop sticking to your ridic'lus principles - when I die, I sh'll die like a king."

His caretaker still could do naught but goggle at his charge - his charge that had taken on an unearthly gold glow as he lifted his face to the skies and cried out. "Mighty Mithros - Great Mother Goddess, I beg you, carry Elsren's spirit, and mine, and every other spirit that has died today by the treachery of my aunt and uncle, safely to the Peaceful Realms. May my death be avenged, by all your many powers!"

The child king turned and looked down at Taybur again, his body glowing so brightly it was unbearable to look at. "Keep well, Taybur."

The astonished steward reached for his king as the glow diminished and the boy stumbled - a harsh, huge wave blew over the boat, knocking the innocent and the defender against the rails as the ship groaned and splintered underneath him. A huge lump welled on the head of the smaller as blood coursed down his face, replacing his earlier tears. "I...fink I's dyin....tell Dovesa...I sorry...." His eyes fluttered and he fought to keep them open. "Tell...aun' an...and uncle...I hate thems...." A gurgling cough as water entered his lungs.

"L-love you, T-tay..." The baby monarch drew his last breath and closed his eyes.

A wordless howl rent the sky open.

A man who could never bear children gathered the one he had considered his own to his breast and mourned, with no pretense of propriety, nor care for what had happened or what was to come.

~_~!~_~!~_~!

Don't you love Imajane? Up to where he says 'I die like a king', that's all Dune.


End file.
